1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electric power supply and generation systems and, more particularly, to allowing a utility to carry out a “selective” disconnect of utility customers using a two-way reporting approach.
2. Description of Related Art
One important activity of a power utility is the disconnection of service to customers. A service disconnection typically results from either of the following situations: (1) a customer moves out of his residence/business and no longer wants service delivered to that service point, or (2) a customer payment delinquency resulting from a past failure of the customer to pay the utility bill. In the first situation, the customer provides the utility with an order to disconnect service. In the second situation, the order comes from the utility's accounting department due to failure to pay the utility bill.
In the past, service disconnection involved one or more trips by a utility worker to the service point to notify the occupants of an upcoming disconnect, followed by another subsequent trip to the service point to physically flip the switch to disconnect power to the service point. This is referred to as a “hard disconnect.” Hard disconnects are not always easy to handle because of issues such as the following: (1) angry customers due to the prospect of service disconnection; (2) uncontrolled pets or other animals; (3) physical difficulties of getting access to the disconnect switch; (4) weather conditions; (5) time and cost associated with getting to the customer's premises, which could be located in a remote area.
To overcome many of the issues related to a hard disconnect, utilities began to make use of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technology that allowed utilities to remotely perform disconnects without the physical presence of a lineman or technician. This is achieved by installing or integrating within the electric meters (“smart meters”) a remote disconnect switch that is actuated through commands sent to the electric meters via various communications methods. These communications methods are generally two-way in order to acknowledge the switch's “state” of allowing electricity to flow or not. There is some additional cost associated with installation of this equipment. However, this avoided most or all of the disadvantages of a hard disconnect noted above.
Although installation of AMI technology equipment resolved many of the issues related to hard disconnects, it added other problems. For example, some customers were put into life-threatening situations because of remote hard disconnects. In some rare cases, customers died because of the lack of heat during winter or from unanticipated “restarts” when a bill was paid sufficiently to warrant a service restoration from the serving utility. A remote hard disconnect may also be life-threatening when a customer has an important medical device using electricity.
Situations such as these have resulted in regulations or legislation in many areas preventing or restricting remote hard disconnects due to “customer payment delinquency.” Because of this, as well as the additional costs related to remote hard disconnects, few utilities are now making use of remote hard disconnects. The result is that utilities are often either continuing to perform hard disconnects on-site at the service point or are performing “soft disconnects.” A soft disconnect does not actually cut power to the service point but merely reads the customer's meter on the last date of occupancy and stops billing the customer after that. Soft disconnects are primarily useful in “customer move” situations in areas with high customer turnover, such as apartment buildings or near college campuses. In those areas, there is typically a quick succession of one customer moving out and another customer moving in.
The advantage of a soft disconnect is that it avoids the cost of physically visiting the service point at least twice—once for a disconnect, and once for a reconnect. It also allows the new customer to be reconnected faster than waiting for a physical visit by a utility worker. However, an obvious problem with a soft disconnect is that power may still be consumed by the service point, resulting in an additional cost to the landlord, the utility, or some other party. For example, the previous customer may have left the HVAC system running. Switch controlled devices, such as water heaters, may be left running by a customer because there is no obvious disconnection feature available to the previous customer.